


the fire you have within will never dim its climb

by silpium



Series: inktober 2019 [5]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 21:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21004679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silpium/pseuds/silpium
Summary: So Kageyama keeps doing it. What he doesn’t expect is for Hinata to retaliate, for him to start making their fingers brush when he hands something to Kageyama or sitting just close enough to Kageyama during lunch that their legs touch. Hinata sees the way Kageyama blushes and gets all ruffled, and smiles in a cocky way, as if to sayI can do it, too.Kageyama wants to kiss the smile right off his face. It’s obvious there’s something between them—even he knows that “just friends” don’t do this sort of thing—but acknowledging it feels like admitting defeat. And if there’s one thing Kageyama refuses to do—it’s to lose to Hinata.Or: if it's not a competition, it's not them.





	the fire you have within will never dim its climb

**Author's Note:**

> for inktober day #5, "build."

Being best friends with Hinata has shifted to liking Hinata. It was a gradual climb, so infinitesimal in its progression that Kageyama never noticed it. 

The two of them are walking home in step with one another, sun caressing their shoulders ever-so-gently, and Hinata laughs at something Kageyama said—a genuine, uninhibited laugh that rings clear throughout the air.

The pure, infectious joy in Hinata’s laugh seeps right under Kageyama’s skin and dissipates throughout him. Even after Hinata stops laughing, he has this silly, cheeky grin on his face, and Kageyama can’t help but match it. And for some reason—Kageyama cannot stop looking at him. At the way Hinata’s hair gleams in the sun, the little curl that always sticks out behind his ear, the rosiness that rose up to his cheeks when he couldn’t catch his breath.

For a startling moment, all Kageyama wants to do is take Hinata’s hands in his own and press their lips together, to feel the warmth radiating off Hinata’s cheeks against his own, to feel Hinata’s tiny gasp of surprise brush against his lips, to feel Hinata’s lips quirk into smile against his—

Kageyama’s heart stutters. The intensity of the urge overwhelms him, clears out all the other thoughts in his head.

Suddenly, everything makes sense.

/ * \

Hinata is, in a word, affectionate. He’s not shy about slapping Kageyama on the back after a particularly good play, dragging him somewhere by the hand—whenever he does it now, all Kageyama can think about is how they fit so nicely in one another’s, the differential softness and newly-forming callouses of Hinata’s hand, how it feels against his own rugged one.

It was fine before. Now, there’s always the phantom feeling of Hinata’s hand in his, or the imprint of Hinata’s hand on his back. Worst of all, Kageyama wants to touch him back. He wants to reach for Hinata’s hand and intertwine their fingers, wants to see Hinata preen under his praise, wants to brush off the rice that inevitably gets stuck to Hinata’s cheek whenever they have lunch together.

So he does.

Hinata visibly startles the first time Kageyama slaps him on the back during practice, yelling something about how Kageyama must’ve been replaced by an alien. Kageyama rolls his eyes at him, but the way Hinata became so flustered makes touching him even more satisfying. Kageyama can’t help but want to see it again and again and again.

The occasion presents itself a few days later, during lunch. Hinata’s got rice on his cheeks as per usual. Kageyama doesn’t even hesitate before reaching out and brushing it off, to which Hinata flushes an even deeper red—cute, cute, cute—and stumbles over his words, voice rising octaves higher. “What—what was _that_? You could’ve—you could’ve just told me I had something on my face! Geez!” He rubs at his cheek aggressively, like he’s making sure there’s absolutely nothing else on it.

Kageyama shrugs. “You weren’t realizing it. So I did it myself.”

“Jerk,” Hinata whines, but here’s the thing—he didn’t say he didn’t like it. No, instead, he keeps glancing at Kageyama throughout the rest of lunch and practice, trying and failing to do it covertly. There’s a question in his eyes that gets left unsaid—and every time, Hinata’s cheeks get the slightest bit pink.

So Kageyama keeps doing it. What he doesn’t expect is for Hinata to retaliate, for him to start making their fingers brush when he hands something to Kageyama or sitting just close enough to Kageyama during lunch that their legs touch. Hinata sees the way Kageyama blushes and gets all ruffled, and smiles in a cocky way, as if to say _I can do it, too_.

Kageyama wants to kiss the smile right off his face. It’s obvious there’s something between them—even he knows that “just friends” don’t do this sort of thing—but acknowledging it feels like admitting defeat. And if there’s one thing Kageyama refuses to do—it’s to lose to Hinata.

/ * \

It becomes a sort of game—seeing who can fluster the other the most. It goes on for longer than Kageyama expected and longer than is reasonable.

Kageyama had almost broken when Hinata had held his hand the entire way home one night. Hinata spoke about the most mundane of things, smiling in that stupid, stupid _adorable_ way of his while gesturing wildly with his free hand, never acknowleding that they were holding hands.

Hinata, too, has shown signs of cracking when Kageyama’s cornered him during lunch. Kageyama had boxed him up against a wall and leaned in ever so close, close enough to feel Hinata’s shaky breath against his face—before the class bells chimed and forced them to go to class. Hinata had started sputtering something that could’ve maybe been taken seriously if not for even the tips of his ears being so red. 

It all comes to a head the night Hinata brings Kageyama over to study. Hinata’s mother is home—she usually isn’t; she must’ve gotten out of work early—and greets them when they enter, face lighting up when she sees Kageyama.

“Oh! Is this the Kageyama-kun you’ve told me so much about, Shouyou?”

Kageyama glances at Hinata. “You talk about me at home?” 

Hinata looks mortified and tries to stop his mother from talking, but to no avail.

“I’m so happy to meet you, Kageyama-kun. You simply have to stay for dinner—it’s unacceptable that I’ve never met my son’s boyfriend before. I almost think Shouyou’s been trying to hide you from me!”

“Anyway,” Hinata says loudly. “We, um, have a lot of studying to do, so we’re just gonna—”

“Oh, by all means! I’m sorry for keeping you, Kageyama-kun. We’ll talk more later!”

Hinata drags Kageyama up to his room quickly. His skin is hot from embarrassment. He drops his bag on the floor and sits on the edge of his bed, refusing to make eye contact with Kageyama.

“So… boyfriend, is it?” Kageyama loves the way the word tastes on his tongue.

“Shut up, shut up, _shut up_, I hate you—”

Kageyama can’t help but smile. “It’s not like I don’t like it.”

“I don’t care! You—obviously you like it if we were doing all that stuff! But I was so close to winning, and—”

Kageyama rolls his eyes. “That’s your own fault. You shouldn’t have slipped up like that.”

Hinata’s head whips up, and he glares at Kageyama. “You’re such a jerk!”

“Nah. Just judging fairly.”

“Like what you did with the wall and the class bell was _fair_—”

Kageyama shrugs. “What’re you gonna do about it, then?”

An evil glint appears in Hinata’s eyes. “This.”

Each movement deliberate, he gets up and stalks over to Kageyama, only stopping close enough for Kageyama to feel his breath. He places a firm hand on Kageyama’s shoulder and stares up at him, light refracting off his eyelashes.

And he kisses Kageyama.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, thanks to [luci](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luciferTM/pseuds/luciferTM) for betaing this for me!
> 
> please feel free to comment, concrit or otherwise, or reach out to me on [twitter @queeenmab](https://twitter.com/queeenmab)! thanks so much for reading and have a great day!
> 
> p.s. heres an excerpt from our betaing session:
> 
> 𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒊𝒏 💜👾Today at 4:13 PM  
hes  
PULLING KAGEYAMA DOWN for the smooch
> 
> 𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒊𝒏 💜👾Today at 4:13 PM  
get 2 my level this time fucker
> 
> i love u robin... thank u for making betaing fun ;v;


End file.
